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Travis Shaw had excellent numbers in Salem and didn't suck in Portland, but apparently no one believes in him as a prospect.

I don't have a problem with the club not having a "long term" first baseman. Having an open 1B position enables the club to take flyers on AAAA mashers or interesting platoons and save money for more difficult positions.

I don't have a problem with the club not having a "long term" first baseman. Having an open 1B position enables the club to take flyers on AAAA mashers or interesting platoons and save money for more difficult positions.

And the last time we went through a situation like this, we ended up with Millar and Ortiz. Sweet! (Okay, and Jeremy Giambi too.)

I was not at all excited about Napoli at 3/39, even before the failed medical. Seems like the sort of in-between contract (a hefty commitment for a non-elite player) that has not worked out well for the Sox in the past (Lugo, Renteria, etc.).

But if we really have gotten Napoli at 1/5 guaranteed, as reported in TFA(presumably with a boatload of incentives), I'm quite happy.

According to another major league source, the deal is for one year with Napoli getting a $5 million guarantee. The deal includes incentives that could increase the value of the contract back to roughly $13 million if Napoli does not spend any time on the disabled list due to a hip injury.

Hmmm, let's see. Free agent with body part known to be dodgy. Sox sign player to contract that essentially encourages him to hide any injury and play hurt. What could go wrong?!?

My reaction was the same as Nate's. It's just hard to be excited about this. That Napoli accepted such a deal suggests to me that's he is just going to fall apart by Patriot's Day.

This opens things up for some guys in the minors. Third base is currently a position of strength in the organization - Bogaerts (potentially), Middlebrooks, Cecchini, Almanzar are all in varying places of optimism and the possibility that one of those guys could wind up at 1st in a year or two is not totally out of the question.

That looks right to me, with the minor edit that Gomes and Salty probably won't be in the lineup together very much. (If Salty is on the roster). LF and C should be semi-platoon job-sharing arrangements, with Saltalamacchia in particular never ever starting against a left-hander. Gomes/(Nava/Kalish) in left and Ross/Saltalamacchia at C.

The one thing I think is likely is that Middlebrooks would bat 6th in your lineup with Gomes and Drew sliding down. I can't imagine him battting 8th.

I initially had it like that. But then I wanted to avoid 3 righties in a row, and the L-S-L of Drew-Salty-Ellsbury. And I figured they would start the season at least with the less established guy further down.

Middlebrooks says at 3B, Gomes moves to DH, and Nava or Kalish or Mark Hamilton plays left (and takes some PA at DH).

If the Sox take a terrible beating on injuries for the third year out of four, they probably won't win very many games. But that's something we knew before they acquired this roster. The depth on the club looks fine to me. You can't have good depth everywhere, but they've got a bunch of options. (They're kind of ###### if Middlebrooks gets hurt, though.)

he has a lot of money and there's PLENTY of females that's all they care about - so what if he looks like a cross between a hippo and a goat and smells like one too. the rest is just stuff to not care about as long as the money is there and he spends it on them.

This seems quite unlikely at this point. Generally you trade the guy and let the other team come to the arb agreement. I suppose they had to wait to get the Napoli thing sorted but then I'm assuming Napoli's hip means little/no catching and, if Napoli gets hurt, Salty might become part of a rotation at 1B. Trading Salty doesn't look like a good move to me at this point. (Granted, I think LH C who can hit decently are nice pieces to have around so trading him never looked like a good move to me.)

If the Sox fall out of it, they'll certainly be able to trade him ... for whatever a half-season of an average player will bring. If there's a team with a gaping hole at C that might be decent return but probably not.

Walt - I think you make good points but I don't think Salty's arb award is particularly onerous.

I agree -- not onerous at all. I just meant that teams trade the arb guys usually before the tender deadline and certainly before now. I'm sure it's happened but other than maybe some fringe-y reliever types, "major" trades of players after they've come to an arb agreement don't spring to mind. It's not like another team had any more uncertainty about what Salty was gonna cost in 2013. As I said, I can see how the Sox might have been forced into the unusual by the Napoli situation -- they couldn't let Salty go until Napoli came to terms and, by the time that happened, it was pretty much last-minute in terms of signing Salty without an arb hearing.

Anyway, there's not much point in a team tendering a player they don't want if somebody else is willing to take him (and give you something back). The Napoli situation is a curveball here but, otherwise, if you're on a team's 40-man in mid-Jan, they intend to keep you.

As much as I don't like these deals where they incentivize hiding injuries, this one is pretty harmless. Napoli, at this point, is a flier and they don't have much behind him. It's not like Drew or Lackey (or or or) where the guy keeping himself in the lineup torpedoed their season.

Anyway, there's not much point in a team tendering a player they don't want if somebody else is willing to take him (and give you something back). The Napoli situation is a curveball here but, otherwise, if you're on a team's 40-man in mid-Jan, they intend to keep you.

The Red Sox make their counterpoint with Marco Scutaro.

Free agent with body part known to be dodgy. Sox sign player to contract that essentially encourages him to hide any injury and play hurt. What could go wrong?!?

This one is a little different. When they've done this in the past, it's been on a long-term deal. If Lackey were on a one-year contract, he'd have had no incentive to stay on the roster and suck. Either he stays and performs, or he goes under the knife ASAP so he's ready for the next contract.

While having to waste a one-year contract on an injured player is not ideal, wasting the first two or three years of a long-term deal is worse, for the team.

I agree with Darren in #37. But I can't agree with him 100%, ever. So...

Napoli is now on the equivalent of a Adrian Beltre Memorial Value-Resetting Contract. That's fine. So is Stephen Drew. You could argue that, in a way, Jacoby Ellsbury is as well. And Andrew Bailey.

The reason teams are generally reluctant to sign players in this situation is because it's seen as a bit of a lottery ticket. It's something that could work out well, but you can't really count on it to do so. The Red Sox have 4 lottery tickets. On the plus side, they've increased their chances of one of them working out well. On the minus side, the opportunity for failure is compounded.

The silver lining on the black cloud I found over a different silver lining is that the chance of success is better than with a lottery ticket. And the black cloud above that silver lining is that we're talking about four players with injury potential on a team that wishes their track record with keeping players healthy could be upgraded to "poor".

he has a lot of money and there's PLENTY of females that's all they care about - so what if he looks like a cross between a hippo and a goat and smells like one too. the rest is just stuff to not care about as long as the money is there and he spends it on them.

The problem with taking the $5M/1 yr with incentives is that if he plays, the hip won't get magically better. If he doesn't play and fixes the hip (if that is surgically possible), he will get even less next year. Either way, he is undoubtedly looking at less next year, even if his hitting year is similar to last even going from the best AL Hitters park to something less than the best AL hitters park. Let his numbers slip a little add to that his hip condition and his salary continues to decline and he signs for less guaranteeing and less incentives. I didn't remember that he was a Boras client but if he is, this is another negative in Boras' ledger, which is becoming increasingly negative.

I have a suspicion this a piece of Lucchino hardball negotiating and Napoli's not happy about it at all. If so, it will come back to bite the Sox, as it should. Clubhouse chemistry will reach a new low.

Pity; Napoli seems an OK guy and would have been a decent acquisition ((overpaid at 39/3, but he won't think that.)